High-Tech Gender Bias Case Headed for Appeal

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – Attorneys for Ellen Pao, the woman behind a failed gender discrimination suit against a venerated Silicon Valley venture-capital firm filed a notice of appeal on Monday. Jurors took just over two days the past March to find Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers not liable for gender discrimination of and retaliation against Pao, its former junior partner. Pao had sued the firm in 2012, claiming she had been denied a promotion and excluded from business opportunities because she is a woman. The firm fired her five months after she filed the lawsuit. Following the verdict, Kleiner Perkins demanded nearly $1 million in costs from Pao – who is now the interim CEO of Reddit. But the firm also agreed to waive its demand if Pao agreed not to appeal. Pao’s attorney Alan Exelrod balked at the firm’s demand last month, calling it “grossly excessive and unreasonable.” On Monday, Exelrod served Kleiner Perkins attorney Lynne Hermle, of the Menlo Park firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, with Pao’s two-page notice of appeal. The notice contained no details. Exelrod is a partner in the San Francisco firm Rudy, Exelrod, Zieff & Lowe.